Traditionally, calibrating or compensating an accessory, such as a probe, in a test and measurement system involves removing the accessory from a device under test (DUT) and connecting the accessory to a calibrating or compensation stimulus. Conventionally, the test and measurement system includes a host, a controller, and a device under test. An accessory is attached to the device under test and measures a signal from the device under test and send it back to the host. However, to calibrate the accessory, the accessory has to be removed from the device under test and attached to a calibration/compensation stimulus, typically from the host. That is, the calibrating or compensation stimulus is located on a host, such as a test and measurement instrument. Connecting the probe/accessory to the calibration or compensation stimulus may involve the use of special adapters and fixtures to interface between probe/accessory and the stimulus signal.
Further, the ability to accurately and reliably calibrate or compensate an accessory for a measurement system is limited by the specification and capabilities of the calibration or compensation output signal. What is needed is the ability to inject a calibration or compensation signal into an accessory to eliminate the need to manually connect the accessory to a calibration or compensation signal and also the need to remove the accessory from a DUT to calibrate or compensate the probe.